In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of setting a good example and maintaining faith in God. He uses the analogy of picking up an apple to illustrate the simplicity of recognizing truth. The preacher also discusses the influence of what we see and hear on our beliefs and actions, particularly in the context of education and peer influence. He strongly condemns immoral behavior and warns against the negative consequences it can have on individuals and society. Throughout the sermon, the preacher emphasizes the need to stand against evil and uphold the standards of faith.

Be sure to be here tonight, now it's 7.30. I've got a message I want to share with you. All right, if you have your Bible this morning, let's turn to the book of Jude. Little book, just one chapter, right over against the book of the Revelation, next to the last book in your Bible, page 1328, if you have your Scofield Bibles. The little book of Jude, just one chapter, but my, how it's filled with the things of the Lord. The book of Jude, now, chapter number one. I tell you, let's begin reading at verse number one so that we can get a picture. I'm really bringing the message to you from verse number three. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. We will stop there. I want you to notice that little trilogy. Did you notice it? And beloved, before you can have mercy, peace, and love, it must be in that order. You must experience the mercy of God. You must, before you can have the peace of God and then have that love that he's offering to every one of us. All right, now, verse number three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. I want to bring a message from that verse. For earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Heavenly Father, give us listening ears, receptive hearts this morning. Give us obedient minds that we might respond to the invitation. Save precious souls this morning. Challenge every one of us, our Father, to be soul winners for Jesus Christ. Thank you for the ones who labored and worked this week to bring people in. Pray that you'd bless them. Give them a warmness in their heart, our Father. Make them feel good all day because they've invited someone to be in the house of God. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Now, I want you to notice many times what the word of God has to say. The Bible says, I exhort you. I want you to know, I'm preaching to you. I'm saying it sternly. The Holy Spirit is saying here, he said, I want you to know, he says, that it's necessary for you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Many times you're misunderstood when you take a stand against modernism or the liberalism that's in our society today. People think you're being cruel. They think you're being self-righteous. They think you're being obnoxious because, in essence, they say all they think is right is their particular brand of denomination. But, beloved, I do not believe this is true. And I believe this is just another slander of the devil himself. For I want you to understand that there is a difference between the fundamental religions of this world, or the fundamental religion, this Christianity of this world, than the modern religion. I want you to know that. I want you to know that the Christ of the fundamentalists, not necessarily independent Baptists, but of the people who believe in the fundamentals of the word of God, that is, they believe the Bible to be divinely inspired. They believe that God the Holy Spirit moved upon men and they wrote under the power of the Holy Spirit of God, wrote this Bible. I believe that a fundamentalist believes that in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, in his deity, in the atonement, the necessity of the new birth, they believe that there is a literal place called heaven, a literal place called hell, and that the difference between them is in accepting Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior. Now, I could go on, but these are the basics. These are the fundamentals. Now, the fundamentalists are people who believe that the word of God is true and that God means exactly what he says and will do anything and everything that he said he would do. Now, the liberals, or the modernists, which is the same term, really, are the people who put a it doesn't really mean that. In other words, it's not necessary anymore to believe that the Bible is a divinely inspired word of God. They say it's the collection of Hebrew myths, that it's something that they gathered of the Hebrew wanderings. They did not have the light, they did not have the enlightenment that we have today. And so they gave the best that they knew how in their day, but now we know more than they do. So therefore, we can't tie ourselves to the word of God. The standard of morals that are given in the word of God are not the exact, but they are something that we're to understand. In other words, give a liberal interpretation. Now, I'm saying to you that the Bible of the liberals is not the Bible of the fundamentals. The Christ of the liberals is not the Christ of the fundamentalists. The heaven of the liberals is not the heaven of the fundamentalists. The liberals say there is no hell. They say there is no real person called the devil, Satan, Lucifer, of which the Bible has much to say. Beloved, I want you to know there is as much difference in liberalism and fundamentalism as there is between Christianity and Mohammed or Confucius or any other religion on the face of this earth today. You need to understand that. Now, I will say this about the modernists and the liberals. They have the best. They're the nearest to the counterfeit, and as a result of it, it's difficult to know the difference many times. Now, when a man of God stands and contends for the faith once delivered unto the saints, he's defending the fundamental beliefs of the word of God. Now, the liberals are going to attack it. You might as well mark it down. Now, I want us to look at something, if you will. I want you to understand, then, that God says that we're to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. We're to contend for it earnestly, fervently, and sincerely, contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Now, I want you to think with me. Forget everything else. Think with me. You're here, and you can't get out for 30 minutes, so you might as well make the best of it. Now, I want you to think with me for a minute, if you will. First of all, I want you to see very logically that contending for the faith is necessary. The Bible says, does it not, it was needful for me to write unto you. It was necessary. It's necessary to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. It's necessary, first of all, to maintain the purity of the faith. If it isn't contended for, that is, if it isn't laid out as it should be, you'll never keep it pure. I remember years ago, when I was in school, in a class of logic, we had a Jewish lawyer, an old man, and he came in, and I shall never forget one thing he said. He said, men, if somebody puts a crooked stick down before you, don't try to prove that it's straight. He said, leave the crooked stick lying there. Get you a stick that's straight and put down beside of it, and your argument is already won. Beloved, I'm not here this morning to try to tell you that the liberals are wrong, but I'm going to show you the fundamental side of it, and then let you make your own decision. I want you to get it in your mind. It's necessary, God said, to put the straight stick down beside the crooked one so that people can understand it. Let's cut the volume down just a little bit, if you will. Contending for the faith is necessary to maintain the purity. I want you to know, beloved, that when the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ is besmirched, it's going to be dragged through the dust, first of all, by the preachers, and God has something to say about them in this Word. Notice what it says. A lot of times people say, you ought to talk about other preachers. You shouldn't talk about other religions. The Word of God does. Does it not? Listen to what it says. In verse number 4, For there are certain men crept in unawares, who before of old are ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to look again, if you will, in verse number 8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignitaries. That's pretty plain, isn't it? Look at verse number 11. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and they ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsayings of Korah. Beloved, I want you to understand that God, writing here through his disciple, he named the things that they were doing. He even said things that they would be misinterpreted and said unkind things, but he nailed them for what they are. Beloved, we are living in an age today, sin is on the rampage, crime in our street, dope addiction, immorality all around us. I'm saying to you, it's time that we came back to taking a stand and earnestly contending for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. You know, this liquor question that's coming up to now, before long, I heard just the other day two things that somehow bothered me considerably. One of them was that a local Baptist pastor over at Pastor of the Myers Park Baptist Church, Dr. Owens, has now joined himself with the wet forces and is going to be one of the active campaigners for liquor by the drink. A pastor of a Baptist church. But before you get too excited, I have a letter here. I wanted to be sure about it. I have it documented here. This is written by a pastor. Here's the paper. I can show it to you. On the 11 o'clock news on WBIR TV, May 21st, 1970, a reporter asked Dr. Billy Graham, Dr. Graham has an authority on the Bible. Does the Bible condemn drinking in itself? His answer, no, sir. I think the Bible condemns drunkenness. I think that in America where we have taken this too far and where we have such a large percentage of alcoholics, five million chronic alcoholics and millions of others on the way to becoming alcoholics, that probably the best way is total abstinence. But I do not believe that it can be proven from the Bible due to the fact that wine is a very prominent factor in the scriptures. Jesus turned water into wine. I don't think that was grape juice. Now I know that a lot of preachers teach that and I'll get a lot of letters on that. It is also true, it goes on in a documented statement, that in a local option liquor by the drink referendum here in Knoxville, two years ago, 1970, the liquor forces used his statement repeatedly to legalize liquor by the drinks here in the city. I guess it's been four years, possibly five, I'll say that to be safe. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the pastor of the First Baptist Church went down to the brewing company that had built a beer distiller there in Winston-Salem and he led in prayer on the opening night. Now Billy Graham says you cannot prove from the Bible that it's wrong to drink. Dr. Owen says I'm going to lead the forces against the wet forces. Now I'm saying to you that this is the reason that you and I have to contend for the faith and take our stand against modernism and liberalism in our city today. Number one, the problem is if you'll analyze our city councilmen, you'll find that by far and large the majority of them are products of a liberal church. Most of them have their membership in very liberal, modernistic churches where they're fed a steady diet of liberalized. God doesn't really mean it. Putting a question mark behind everything that God says is right and the things that God says are wrong. They're putting a question mark behind it. I'm saying to you today that we're in the condition we're in because of the preachers of the city of Charlotte and the preachers of North Carolina and the preachers of America. I'm saying to you just as he said, we have not been contending for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Billy Graham said you cannot prove from the Bible that it's wrong to take a drink. All right, I'll say this. I remember several years ago, I was in a barbershop when these wise acres came up and he said to me, preacher, he said, I heard you preaching on the radio the other day and you said something about it not being right to smoke. He said, now what I'm trying to say is if I could put my verse, my finger on the verse of scripture and the word of God, it says, thou shalt not take a drink. It wouldn't make any difference with the liquor crowd. They don't believe God's word to start with. Why are we all upset about one verse of scripture? I look back down through the card of time. I hear a preacher that was better known than Billy Graham. His name was Dr. Habakkuk. He stood and he said, woe unto him that put his drink to his neighbor's lips. I listened down through the card of time and I hear in the book of Proverbs, who is he that hath red eyes? It goes on to say, he that stays up to wine. I have a book here, if you can see, those of you here, it's an old worn out book. You see it here in the choir? It's a book about the life of Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday was a man of God. He feared, he didn't neither fear nor courage the favor of man. I'm reading an article here from it. Listen to what it says. His biographer before he gives us the message verbatim on the message that he preached many times called just booze. Here's what his biographer said about it. Everybody will admit the saloon keeper, first of all, that Billy Sunday is the most effective foe of the liquor business in America today. Small wonder the brewers spend large sums of money in circulating a tax upon him and then going before him to every town where he conducts meetings, spreading slanders of many sorts. There is a ghastly humor in the success the brewers have in enlisting the preachers to make common cause with them in discrediting the evangelists. Shrewd men have come quite generally to the conclusion that they will not give aid and comfort to the enemies of righteousness whose interests are best served by criticism of Billy Sunday. All incidental questions aside, Sunday does the Lord's work and the Lord's servants attacking him, though it is quite understandable why the liquor interests should spend large sums of money in antagonizing Sunday, it would be worth a million dollars to them any day if he could be put out of action. Let me say that in very simple, sudden, and accurate. The liquor crowd found that if they could enlist the preachers to criticize Billy Sunday, it was a great aid too. Now I'm turning over and I'm going to read just a few excerpts from a message that Billy Sunday had to say. Listen to what he said. The saloon, I want you to notice he said saloon. You know what he's talking about? Liquor by the drink. Listen. The saloon is the sum of all villains. It is worse than war or pestilence. It is the crime of crime. It is the parent of crimes and the mother of sins. It is the appalling source of misery and crime in the land. And to license such an incarnate fiend of hell is the dirtiest, lowdown, damnable business on top of this old earth. There is nothing to compare with it. What is the it referring to? A saloon, a place to sell liquor by the drink. I'm going to turn over another page. I want you to listen. I'm talking about one of the great preachers. The day has gone by. He tags this in and he calls it, the saloon is a coward. As Dr. Howard said, I tell you that the saloon is a coward. It hides itself behind stained glass doors and opaque windows and sneaks its customers in at a blind door. And it keeps a sentinel to guard the front door from the officers of the law. And it marks this wire with false bills of lading and offer the ship things to you in disguise. I wish I could read it all. Listen. It strikes in the night. It fights on the cover of darkness and assassinates the character that it cannot damn. And it lies about you. It attacks defenseless womanhood and childhood. The saloon is a coward. It is a thief. It is not an ordinary court offender that steals your money, but it robs you of your manhood and leaves you in rags and takes away your friends and it robs your family. It impoverishes your children and it brings insanity and suicide. It takes the shirt off of your back and steals the coffin from a dead child and yanks the last crust of bread out of the hand of a starving child. It will take the last bucket of coal out of your cellar and the last sin out of your pocket and will send you home bleary-eyed and staggering to your wife and children. It will steal the milk from the bread of the mother and leave her with nothing with which to feed her infant. It will take the virtue from your daughter. It is the dirtiest, low-down, damnable business that ever crawled out of the pit of hell. It is a sneak and a thief and a coward. Then he goes on to say it is also an infidel. It has no faith in God, has no religion. It would close every church in the land. It would hang its bear signs on the abandoned altars. It would close every public school. It respects the thief and it esteems the blasphemous. It fills the prison and the penitentiaries. It despises heaven, hates love, and scorns virtue. It tempts the passion. Its music is the song of a siren. Its sermons are a collection of blue vows, stories. It wraps a mantle around the hope of this world and that to come. Its tables are full of the vilest literature. It is the moral clearinghouse for rot and damnation and poverty and insanity, and it wrecks home and blights life. The saloon is a liar. It promises good cheer and sends sorrow. It promises health and causes disease. It promises prosperity and sends adversity. It promises happiness and sends misery. He goes on and on and on. Here is a man, he said, as long as there is a drop of blood in your body, he will fight against the saloon. Billy Sunday. They said over a million souls are in the kingdom of God because of that man. And when Dr. Billy Graham or any other man says that it's right and you can't find it in the word of God, he's sure criticizing a good crowd of people. Now, I want to take that statement, and I want you to turn in your Bible for a minute to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. You can't find anything in the Bible wrong with taking a drink. Now, God gave you sense enough to do some things. I've told you before, but I've never found a place in the Bible where God says, come in out of the rain. God gave you sense enough to do that. I've never found a place in the Bible where God says, build a house in you, or build a fire in your house when it's winter time. God gave me sense enough to do that. God gave me sense enough to do a lot of things, and he didn't have to put it in the Bible for me to do it. Now watch. Look in your Bibles in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse number 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, don't you be fooled by anybody. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covenants, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Watch now. And such were, past tense, some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. I want you to notice what he listed. He said they're fornicators, they're adulterers, they're idolaters, they're thieves, they're covenants, nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God. All right, I put it in. God put drunkenness in with the same thing of extortioners with the unjust people, with effeminate, that's homosexuals, with adulterers. And he says, these people are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Some of you used to be like that. You're not like that anymore. And such were, past tense, some of you. Now listen to me. If the word of God doesn't take a stand against taking a drink of liquor, then by God's grace and as God's minister, Dr. Billy Graham is going to have to say, if God sends a man to hell because he's a drunkard and never gets saved, then Billy Graham is going to have to say, if a man can get saved and still take a drink, and if it isn't wrong, he's going to have to say that after you get saved, you can commit adultery if you don't commit it, but a little bit. He's going to have to say you can steal if you don't steal, but a little bit. He's going to have to say you can extort money from your company if you don't extort, but a little bit. How foolish can we get? Earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. You can't make me believe that the Apostle Paul was a social drinker. You can't make me believe that any of the disciples or the great men of God down through the years have been social drinkers. It's this milk sock society in which we're living now. Brother, we've got the men looking like the women and the women looking like the men and the Christians looking like the world and the world looking like Christians, and we've got such a conglomeration. Nobody knows a difference. It's no wonder nobody fears the church of the Lord Jesus Christ anymore today. Brother, we need to stand up. I'll tell you what we need to come back to. We need to come back to a day when some men like Billy Sunday were in the pulpit, when they marched down the street with their hands together, when a man made the statement, he said, my business is producing a quarter of a million dollars more every month. And the man said, is it because of the Christianity that was brought in here through Billy Sunday's converts? Well, he said, partial, but mainly because they're not drinking anymore, and they've got a clear eye and a steady hand, and the production of my place has gone up. We need some men like Billy Sunday. We need some men like the former president of the First Union National Bank, who said to a group of young bankers, he said, fellows, you can take advantage of the gullible and the helpless and the widows, and he said, you can make a fortune. But he said, when you die, you'll go to hell. We need men like J.B. Ivey, who said, no liquor shall be sold in my establishment, no advertisement in paper on Sunday, pull the shades down on Sunday. This is God's day. And when you had men like Billy Sunday and J.B. Ivey, you could walk down the street with your wife. You could let your children walk down the street and play in the park at night, not be afraid of some pervert. But now we're filled with liberals who think we got to appease a nation and the ungodly lust of ungodly men to operate a city. My God, where are we going? Earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. It's necessary, I'm saying to you, brother, they've brought our morals down today, that where nothing anymore is decent, nothing anymore has any meaning to it. And every little fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy and girl today, because they don't have an experience they call love, and God still thunders down, and you can hear the voice as it echoes and reverberates, coming like thunder from Sinai, thou shalt not commit adultery. Divorce today is nothing but like roulette chairs. I remember when I was a boy, we used to play turning over the fruit basket. You'd sit in chairs and somebody would say something, and you'd have to run around in chain chairs, and it reminds me of that today. And I'll be honest with you, I can't be half as sympathetic with it, because maybe somebody else. Immorality on the loose today, illegitimate children, mixed marriages and things beyond belief, nearly. Well, God has decided today, he says, let everybody have their own way. And I'll tell you, not only is it to maintain the purity of faith. Brother, if the preachers sell out, brother, I want you to know the people. The Bible says as the priests, so are the people. I'll be honest with you, we're going into a new church, but I tell you, I'd like to read my titles clear. My wife said to me one night, Friday night, I guess it was, we had for ever since I've been pastor here, we've tried to make it a point to have a meal together at least once a week. I think you need to do that, and try to stay sweethearts. And lately I haven't been able to do that, and I've missed it, so has she, and we finally had a little time. So we went out for a little dinner. So we were sitting there, the two of us, and she said, you know, it's been a long time since we did this. And I said, I know. And I put my hand on hers, and I said, but honey, wait a minute. I said, now it'll be a while yet. Probably another three months before everything's all settled, and the mood's affected, and everything's all still down. Things kind of halfway get back to normal. You'd be surprised how few nights I'm at home. I said, it'll be all right. I said, but now listen, one day when our little granddaughter, the Lord tarries, has grown, has children of her own, I want her to drive by and say, my Pawpaw helped build that church. My Pawpaw helped do that. I want your children to say the same thing. I want your grandchildren to say, my grandmother, my grandfather, helped build that place. Some of their perspirations in that foundation, some of their sweats on the carpet, they helped build it. They built a citadel, a fortress for God, a place to stand for. My beloved, here's what I'm trying to say. We've got a great indebtedness. A fellow said to me the other day, you're probably further out of debt, and you'll never be the rest of your life, Brother Hudson, as far as a pastor and a church is concerned. And I didn't get over that easily. That still stayed with me. I want to tell you something. I want to read my titles clear. I want every deacon to hear them, I want every officer of this church to hear them. Before I compromise with this ungodly crowd and cut our limit to try to get a crowd in here, I'd rather go back to that little one-room church and start all over again. Let the liberal crowd have that place out there. Now, I'm going to make my titles clear. I'm going to earnestly contend for the faith that wants to deliver. If you like to drink liquor, you won't be happy in our church. If you believe in being unfaithful to your wife and family, you won't be unhappy in here. And God being my helper, it's going to get hotter. I want to preach more direct and more forceful than I've ever preached in my life. Because, Brother, I tell you this, if it's rubbing your fur the wrong way, turn around, Brother, and I'll start petting you with the same licks that I'm ruffling your feathers with. I'm trying to say, Brother, this is not a social gathering place. It's a place where saints of God meet, Brother, that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, going to heaven when they die, taking a stand against evil, not supporting anybody, whoever their name may be. That's not for the right things of God. And I'll tell you this, you need to maintain the faith of the people. It says, wants to deliver it unto the saints. Now, if the pastor's wrong, the people are going to be wrong. Have you ever thought about it? The Lord said, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is it. Have you ever heard the word ideology? It comes from the word ideas. It's something that you think. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is it. Now, you take a schoolteacher, put her out here in her room by herself and give her some first graders, and she teaches the numbers, and she says, 1-5-9-7-6-3-2. And after six months you go out there and you say to the boys and girls, Son, stand up. You say, Yes, sir. Would you count for me? Yes, sir. 1-9-6-3-4-9-7. And you say, Wait a minute, son. What about the alphabet? Oh, yes, sir. I can say that, too. All right. This is just as my teacher told me. A-Z-9-you-know-why-C-4-and he goes on down the line. He stands there just screaming. Now, you know what's happened? She is not abiding by the rules that evolve from something that's truth. Now, do you know what? If I pick up an apple, I've got one in my hand. I don't have to be a mathematician to know that's one apple. I don't know if you want to say it in Spanish. We should have used some other. But there it is. That's one. I pick up another one and I put it over there, and I don't care if I'm in Russia, in Holland, or in America, or in Charlotte, or wherever I am, that's two apples, brother. That's two. I mean, there is a rule that cannot be changed. Now, if a teacher goes out there and teaches them that they've got three apples in their hand, when they've only got two, they are disregarding the rules that have been passed down from time immemorial, brother. These are established rules of mathematics. If you take one of our teachers out there, or all of our teachers out there, and say, listen, here's what she is teaching out there . . . not ABCDEFGH, but ADEFGS, or she goes on down the line . . . You know what we would do? We'd say now, wait a minute. We better take these children, get them over here, here, and get rid of that person. She's disregarding these things. She's not going by the rules that were once delivered unto teachers. Now, beloved, any time anybody is preaching anything contrary to what God says, not what I say, but to what God says, they're not preaching according to the faith once delivered unto the saints. And we ought to do the same thing that a teacher would do when they find a teacher teaching wrong rules of mathematics or of grammar or of any other subject that we have rules for. I'm trying to say to you, brother, God says to do it. Now, I think the same thing is true, is it not? Have you been to high school lately? It'd be an education in the sense to go to them, go in the classroom. You just go in the halls. Watch the boys and girls walk outside and start smoking. Smoking what? You'll have to guess yourself. Watch how they dress. Watch how they talk. Watch how familiar they are with each other. Now, as I said about these tapes, brother, if I can see something and hear it too, it's the greatest learning power that I have. So will you. Now, the Bible says that Lot vexed his righteous soul by what he saw and by what he heard every day. Now, you let a boy or girl go with that crowd day in and day out, five days a week, and then they come home and you say, honey, son, you oughtn't to do this. I mean, that's not the right way. I'm trying to get you to see, beloved, that this thing that we've got to do is set the example by delivering this faith. We've got to have the standards in our home. We've got to have it in our schools. We've got to have it in our church. We've got to have a standard to set the example of the faith once delivered unto the Saints. I'll show you something else. If we learn by seeing and by hearing, if we're influenced by it, have you ever wondered where the dress code comes from? It's because they see other people wearing it, they want to be like that. This year they say television is going to be probably the worst we've ever had. Oh, not in the eyes of the entertainers, but in the eyes of Christians. As one program on, I've never seen, and I'm not saying, look at me, I'm righteous, I'm not saying it, it's one called Maud. Now, the strange thing about it, I never hear Christians saying, we don't watch that. I have heard Christians say, oh, that's so funny, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. But it's so dirty and filthy that the sponsors withdrew their sponsorship. I've never heard a Christian criticize, not one Christian have I ever heard criticize. The Lipton Tea Company withdrew their sponsorship from it because they were, they were treat abortion, sterilization and adultery as one big joke. And the Tetley Tea Company withdrew their support. The Norelco Company, the Norelco Shavers withdrew their support. And the General Food Company, makes many products, withdrew their support. Man, I got to where I wanted to buy me a Norelco and drink Lipton's tea and eat General Food. And thank God for sponsors that got more sense than Christians. All in the family. It shouldn't be in anybody's family that knows God. Now you watch that day in and day out. And after a while, nothing shocks you anymore. Did you know that? Nothing shocks you. You say, well, this is what happens all the time. And we've got to do it if we maintain the future of the faith. It says, once and for all deliver them. There'll be no more faith given. We've got to do it with clean lives. We've got to do it with consistent lives. And let me just give you the outline. Then contending for the faith as commanded, ye should. Doesn't it say that? That we should contend for the faith as commanded. It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Did you know there are three books in the Bible written directly to the preachers? First Timothy, Second Timothy, and the book of Titus. Now listen to what they said. For example, in First Timothy, chapter 5, verse number 20, Paul says to his young preacher, them that sin, rebuke before all that they may all fear. In Second Timothy, chapter 4, verse number 2, it says, preach the word be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. Reprove and rebuke, it says, in Titus chapter 1. Let me turn here for just a minute. Let's see, right up against the book of Hebrews, Titus chapter 1, verse number 10. Listen to what it says. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcisions, whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filth and lucre's sake, for money's sake. Of themselves, even as one of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and slow betters, or they're just lazy. This witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. Beloved, God said three times in every book, or said in every book that he wrote to the preachers, I want you to rebuke them that sin. I want you to do it with love in your heart. In the book of Isaiah, it said, lift up your voice like a trumpet. The apostle Paul said in Acts chapter 20, let me turn there, in the book of Acts chapter 20, listen to what he says in verse number 29. And I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Wherefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one of you day and night with tears. Paul is saying that we're to watch, child of God, we're to watch. The Bible says that people like wolves will come in among the flock. He says they'll pull out people after them, and of their own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Then he says, therefore, watch. Beloved, God gives us this command. It's commanded of the believers. It says, try the spirit. Then I want you to see contending for the faith as an unpopular thing. I want you to know that Moses stood there when he had to make the decision. He said, who is on the Lord's side? And you remember 3,000 men died. Have you ever thought about the brothers and sisters and the mothers and fathers of those people? I'm sure Moses wasn't popular. Joshua in his day, choose you this day whom you'll serve, people said, that old self-righteous prophet. Elijah, how long haught ye between two opinions? If God be God, serve him, but it failed in him. You remember when they found him? Ahab said to him, are thou he that troubleth all Israel? It wasn't Elijah, it was the sins of old Ahab and his people. Stephen in chapter 7 of the book of Acts, you remember standing there? He gave them the truth, and the Bible says the men gnashed on him with their teeth and picked up rocks and stoned him to death. When he made that immortal statement, he said, Father, lay not this sin to their charge. He looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God interceding for him, the men stoned to death. Brother, the Bible says, and God wants you to understand this, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. Just a little bit of error is going to leaven your whole life, your whole ministry, your whole outlook on life. You better come back to this thing and say, by God's grace I'm going to take a stand against what God takes to stand against. I'm going to be far without any shame whatsoever what God is far. I'm going to stand upon the promises of the Word of the living God uncompromisingly, and I'm going to stand there until Jesus calls me home. Now, brother, I'll be honest with you, you won't get saved any other way. You won't get saved until you are willing to forsake your sin and come to the Lord Jesus Christ and accept his way of life. Oh, you can join a church. You can get in some of these liberal churches just walking down the aisle. You don't have to go back anymore. You've got all the prestige of being a church member. You can get your children married and bury your dead there, but you don't have to do anything. But I'll be honest with you, you'll probably die and go to hell unless you get born again. You'll never get to heaven. I'm trying to say to you this morning, beloved, this thing is clear cut. Jesus said, he that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. He didn't say to the church. He said to him, you need to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that whatever you're with, that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses from all sin, regardless of how big and great your sin may be. God, this morning through his blood of his son, Jesus Christ can forgive you of that sin. And the Bible says he can put the no sew of salvation in your soul. He can put the heaven in your heart and God can put something in you that'll make you forsake this world and turn towards God. Now, the only way you can do it is make it clear cut. You've got to cut sin out and turn on the righteousness. You've got to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and forsake this world. That's the only way you'll get saved. That's the only way you'll go to heaven. That's the only way that you can earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Beloved, we need to come back to it. The Bible admonishes us to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. I'll tell you when this election comes around in November, brother, you walk in and pull that curtain and you're going to pull that little bell and it'll make a little sound. I guarantee you one thing, brother, the recording angel in heaven will know what you recorded. And I believe God being my witness that you'll stand, if you're a child of God, you will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of it. I'll tell you what you better do. You better side with God. You better not listen to these so-called fair-haired evangelists. You better listen to God in this thing and get it settled, brother. And if it's right to take a little drink, if drunkards go to hell, and if adulterers go to hell, it'll be right to come in a little adultery. It'll be right to thieve a little. It'll be right to extort a little, brother. Use common sense that God has given you and wake up to the truth about it.